my second bulino (I even dream in dots now)

[KatherinePlumer]

Hey everyone! I've definitely been bitten by the bulino bug! I wanted to try something really small and wanted to get more detail in there (this is half the size of the tiger I did for my first engraving) and also something with a human figure, so this is my second try at bulino engraving.

It's all dots. Lines aren't working for me (yet, I'll keep trying) and aside from that I'm just sort of nuts about dots. This is 1 inch by 3/4 inch on steel. I may have gotten a bit carried away for a practice piece, but that's okay. It took an insane number of hours. Bulino really is a whole different mindset!

I am not great at photographing these things, so the best I could do was these photos taken through the scope. The one with the penny is inked. The one without the penny is not inked. I gotta say scrimshaw is WAY easier to photograph! This metal stuff drives me bonkers with it only being nicely visible from certain angles!

Anyway, it's progress, I'm happy!

-Katherine

[JohnR]

Beautiful work Katherine especially being only your second attempt at bulino. I am just learning bulino myself and I also sometimes see dots everywhere. Eventhough its a slow process I really enjoy the time I spend on it.

Thanks for posting the pictures and hope to see more. I use to work near Wilton many year ago with my father, very nice country out there.....JohnR

[ron]

hi kathern .. just beautiful , i envy you people who can do belino ... some day i will be there .. thanks for postig .. ron p

[SVD]

Just as beautiful as I expected when you said you were going to give it a try.

[ArtisticAttributes]

Skills... Katherine has them. Isn't exciting when an artistic background can be applied to so many mediums!! You will go far. Nice work!!

[KatherinePlumer]

Thanks you guys!

-K

[Danny C]

Say Kat (hope you don't mind) that pic looks a lot like you.
Now you have to inlet that piece into another piece that has more "artistic detail" to it (like a picture in a frame thing).
Hate to see such wonderful work not being used somewhere on something.
need to go get some of that talent - what store did you go to?

[brandvik]

Katherine,

I agree with Danny. That portrait is almost as pretty as you.

It was a pleasure to visit with you in Reno and to see your amazing scrimshaw work first hand. I hope the contacts you made there in Reno are contributing to your finacial success.

Thanks for sharing your beautiful work.

Best,

[Daniel Houwer]

Way to go Katherine!
I just love the softness of the hair on the right below center side.
Thanks for showing.

Daniel

[SVD]

Say Katherine

One idea for your next 'practice plate'. KnifeKits.com sells, well... knives in kit form, many of which have bolsters around the size you usually work at.

The finished knife wouldn't be as good a knife as your work should be on but you'd at least have a sample piece to show off your work in a realistic context.

The nice thing about doing one of these knives next is that if you did somehow have a problem you could easily get a replacement bolster and try again. Taking a quick look on another computer (so I can't cut & paste the link, unfortunately) their Lone Star lock back is a fairly nice looking knife with clean bolsters for you to work on and the kit is only $16.95.

[Herman Knives]

Katherine, that is really incredible for your second bulino piece. Maybe you could practice on one of my knives someday:D You seem to be a natural at this, very beautiful work. just my opinion but you could use some linework in places for some different effects.
Maybe someday you could practice on one of my knives:D
I know you have probably been asked a hundred time but what kind of tool are you using? Do you cut yur dots at different angles? Im still learning after all these years.
Also, do you pop off the burrs on each dot? some think it isnt engraving if the burr isnt removed but just stippled. Well Fracassi and most of the best leave the burrs on.
Anyway, excellent work and cant wait to see the next one. I'm working on some tigers now in color now for an Owen Wood dagger. As well as you are doing maybe you can do on of my little Slivers. Keep up the excellent work.

[KatherinePlumer]

Thanks everyone!

Steve- I've thought about that but but wonder if it's possible to get enough resale value on a knife like that? (I genuinely don't know, I only know it takes me about a bazillion hours to do this). I am hoping to buy a nice but not super high end knife soon. I hope... (<-- I had to stick that in here somewhere).

Danny- yeah, I need to do some work on something other than practice plates...

Jim- aww shucks, thanks. Things are maybe moving, slowly, maybe... possibly...

Tim- I was just about to answer the PM but I guess I can cover a lot of those questions here. Yeah, I do want to try some line work. I've not had much luck experimenting with it, but am going to try some different gravers and see what happens. As far as dot angle goes, I cut them all the same. I don't know enough about this to know if it would make a difference if I didn't, and I figured I'd probably ink it anyway. I used the Phil Coggan point on the graver I used for this piece. There really didn't seem to be burrs. I don't know. See, I shouldn't try to answer these questions, it makes me sound clueless (and rightly so!). The piece feels smooth to the touch, and it inks up nicely, but it's not like I saw chips of steel go flying. I guess whatever is removed is so small it just ends up being the "crud" I wipe off the graver tip from time to time? I don't know enough about it to know the answers! Can't wait to see your tigers!

Some day I'll be qualified to know what I'm talking about!

-Katherine

[SVD]

Katherine

Tim's knives are much more suitable to your work value-wise. The KnifeKits knife is just a suggestion for a practice plate you that puts your work in a better context. I think putting $300 (probably much more) engraving on a $16 knife will certainly increase the resale value of the knife but it might just tend to reduce the value of the engraving.

I should do some though - adding $50 worth of engraving to a $20 knife isn't a bad combo.

In a thread on bulino somewhere I saw one of the people who knows what he's talking about say that the chips from this kind of engraving are so small you can hardly see them - and then usually just as they build up on your graver. Sounds like you are getting the burrs out since you do get a buildup of 'crud' on your graver.

[dkemppai]

Hi,

Wow! Really nice!

I really like the hand/forearm is really good. Hands can be hard to draw right. That one looks perfect!

-Dan

[WVEngraver]

A fantastic self portrait ... of which the "angles" are very well done.

[Herman Knives]

I f you would feel more comfortable talking in email we can do that. hermanknives@comcast net

Your work is very good for only being the second piece. Dont cheapen it working on a 16$ kit knife or any junk knife. Please email me to talk more.